Bo Xilai at the Great Hall of the People, on March 13, in Beijing. Before his political elimination, Bo had planned for a major round of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners as a means of strengthening his position in the Party. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

The Chinese Communist Party faction led by Jiang Zemin has long sought a way to assure that the persecution of Falun Gong would continue. According to a person familiar with the inner workings of the Party’s ruling circle, the purged former Party heavyweight Bo Xilai and the soon-to-retire domestic security czar Zhou Yongkang began early in 2011 to put into action a plan meant to do just that.

The Storm II plan aimed, according to the source in Beijing, to intensify the persecution of Falun Gong. The first targeted area was in the far northeastern province of Heilongjiang and then in the provinces around Beijing, beginning with Hebei Province, the province that surrounds the capital city.

Heilongjiang was meant to be used as a testing ground, where the Party would increase efforts to “transform” Falun Gong practitioners before the end of their sentences. Transformation is the soul-wrenching process of forcing someone to condemn their former beliefs and declare devotion to the doctrines of the Communist Party.

Bo and Zhou chose Hebei Province in part because the province’s Party head at the time, Zhang Yunchan, was tied to Zeng Qinghong, a prominent member of the Jiang Zemin faction responsible for the persecution.

Under the guise of protecting the upcoming 18th Party Congress, Bo and Zhou hoped to see an increase in the persecution of Falun Gong in Hebei that would then spread to surrounding provinces.

At the 18th Party Congress, expected this October, a new Party leadership will be named, with Xi Jinping the presumptive next Party head and Li Keqiang the next premier.

Storm II was aimed at influencing Xi and Li and embarrassing current Party head Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, according to the source.

“This plan was formed in early 2011 when Bo Xilai was looking very strong,” the source in Beijing said. “The plan was supposed to be carried out in February and used for one year to restart the attack on Falun Gong.

“This can not only coerce Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang into working with Bo Xilai after the 18th Congress and paying for the continued persecution of Falun Gong, the increased suppression can also be used to blame Hu and Wen for their mistake of intentionally toning down the suppression after October 2005, and the CCP’s fifth plenary session of the 16th Congress.”

In 2005, the propaganda assault on Falun Gong was greatly diminished, removing the regime’s case for the persecution from daily media reports.

Avoiding Accountability

Commentator Liu Xiao writing in The Epoch Times in March explained the motivations driving Bo Xilai, Zhou Yongkang, and the rest of Jiang Zemin’s faction as they contemplated the upcoming transfer of power.

It’s obvious that the persecution of Falun Gong is the core issue that the CCP top circle cannot evade.

—Liu Xiao

“It’s obvious that the persecution of Falun Gong is the core issue that the CCP top circle cannot evade.

“Because of their active participation in the persecution of Falun Gong, Wang Lijun, Bo Xilai, Zhou Yongkang, Li Changchun, Jia Qinglin, and Luo Gan are bound together in the Jiang Zemin faction.”

“In order to continue the persecution and avoid being held accountable for their crimes after stepping down, Zhou Yongkang and others in the Jiang faction were hoping to bring the equally guilty Bo Xilai into the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee,” Liu wrote.

When Bo’s former police chief and henchman Wang Lijun fled Chongqing for the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, the attempt to shoehorn Bo into the Standing Committee exploded for good, triggering the sequence of events that led to Bo being purged.

But the Storm II plan was drafted under the assumption that Bo would continue to be a major player in the CCP. By involving Xi and Li in the continued persecution, Bo would assure that he and other members of Jiang’s faction would avoid being held accountable for the crimes committed against Falun Gong practitioners.

Transformation Backfires

In Heilongjiang, where the plan was put into motion, things did not work out as planned, with the Chinese people taking a hand in defeating Bo and Zhou’s scheme, according to the source.

On Feb. 26, 2011, an effort to transform Falun Gong practitioner Qin Yueming, who had one year left on his 10-year prison sentence, ended with his death by torture in Heilongjiang’s Jiamusi Prison.

A small-business owner from Yichun City in Helongjiang, Qin was only 47 years old and left behind a wife and two daughters.

After Qin’s death, his wife Wang Xiuqing and his daughters Qin Rongqian and Qin Hailong sued for compensation in the wrongful death of Qin. On Nov. 13, 2011, Wang and the younger daughter Qin Hailong were arrested and sent to Qianjin Forced Labor Camp in Harbin.

The older daughter, Qin Rongqian, then took to the streets asking the public to sign a petition seeking redress for the wrongs suffered by her family. With the help of family, friends, and kindhearted strangers, in half a month she had collected over 15,000 signatures along with thumbprints affixed with red wax (the traditional Chinese way of solemnly signing one’s name to a document).

According to the source, the CCP leaders in Beijing were shocked when they saw a copy of the signatures.

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